Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

Hutchen R. Hutchins, born on June 30, 1903, was part of a small but active cadre of African American Communists operating in the Pacific Northwest during the 1930's. Originally from the East Coast, Hutchins attended the Lenin School in Moscow in the late 1920's. In 1932 he was sent to Seattle by the Communist Party USA's Central Committee in New York to serve on a three-member District Executive Committee. That same year he helped organize one of the largest demonstrations of unemployed workers in the state's history. Hutchins reportedly clashed with Party members in the Northwest who, considered him overbearing and doctrinaire. In 1933 he was replaced, along with the other two members of the Executive Committee, by a new Executive Secretary. Hutchins stayed in Seattle and retained a Marxist political orientation, although it is unclear whether he remained an official member of the Communist Party. Throughout the latter half of the 1930s he served as president of ...

Leonard Harper was a producer, stager, and  choreographer  in New York City during the  Harlem Renaissance  in the 1920's and 1930's. Harper's works spanned the worlds of  Vaudeville ,  Cabaret ,  Burlesque  and Broadway musical comedy. As a dancer, choreographer and studio owner, he coached many of the country's leading performers, including  Ruby Keller .  Fred Astaire  and  Adele Astaire , came by the studio twice, and the  Marx Brothers  went for lessons. He produced floor shows and theatrical revues both uptown in Harlem and downtown on Broadway's Great White Way. In his  Times Square  dance studio he trained the  Busby Berkeley  dancers, and Fred's sister  Adele Astaire . He co-directed and staged the ensemble segments of  The Exile  and the short film  Darktown Revue  with  Oscar Micheaux . Harper staged for Broadway  Hot Chocolates ...

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was, in 1925, the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In the 1920s and 1930s the Pullman Company was one of the largest single employers of blacks and had created an image for itself of enlightened benevolence via financial support for black churches, newspapers and other organizations. It also paid many porters well enough to enjoy the advantages of a middle-class lifestyle and prominence within their own communities. Working for the Pullman Company was, however, less glamorous in practice than it appeared. Porters depended on tips for much of their income and thus on the generosity of white passengers who often referred to all porters as "George", the first name of George Pullman, the company's founder.  Porters spent roughly ten percent of their time in unpaid "preparatory" and "terminal" set-up and clean-up duties, paid fo...